A supporter of FC Minsk in attendance at a Belarusian Premier League match on March 28. It’s Europe’s lone soccer league still in action. Sports events in Belarus, along with many aspects of life, have continued as normal despite the spread of coronavirus.

Countries around the world have enforced strict lockdown measures in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus, with some early signs it may be working.

Two European countries, Denmark and Austria, have even signaled plans to gradually lift lockdown measures starting later this month, following a number of Asian countries, including China, the origin of the virus. The U.S., the U.K., India, Italy, Spain and many more countries remain in lockdown in the fight to beat the virus.

However, some countries have taken different paths in the face of the pandemic.

Vodka and saunas

The president of Belarus, a landlocked country bordering Russia, has encouraged people to drink vodka and regularly visit saunas to beat the coronavirus-borne disease COVID-19. Alexander Lukashenko, a former collective-farm boss who has led the country since the demise of the Soviet Union, has even prescribed the driving of tractors to fend off the virus, calling fear of the coronavirus a “psychosis.”

The 65-year-old has refused to put the country’s 9.5 million people into lockdown and has insisted that life goes on as normal, himself playing in an ice-hockey match at the end of March.

The Belarusian Premier League is Europe’s only ongoing soccer league, and its matches have attracted a surge in interest from the U.K. and other countries in recent weeks. Official figures show that Belarus has reported just 13 deaths from coronavirus. Those numbers have been questioned by locals, and more than 150,000 Belarusians have signed a petition calling for a nationwide quarantine.

“In most countries of the world, the necessary measures have long been taken to stop the spread of coronavirus. Unfortunately, in the Republic of Belarus there is a complete disregard for the disease and incorrect informing of residents,” the petition reads, continuing: “This petition is like a cry from the soul. We urgently need to enter quarantine. We require quarantine. We want to live!”

Resisting lockdown

Sweden remains one of the only EU countries not in lockdown, adopting a far more relaxed strategy to tackle the spread of coronavirus. As others have closed social venues, Sweden’s bars, cafés and restaurants have remained open.

Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has instead called on every citizen to take responsibility, with only the elderly and most vulnerable being told to self-isolate and stay at home. The country’s limited measures in recent weeks have included banning gatherings of more than 50 people — revised from an initial ban on gatherings of over 500 — and table service only at restaurants.

However, coronavirus deaths in Sweden surged from 239 on April 1 to 591 on Tuesday — with 114 in the past 24 hours alone. Lofven’s tone shifted on Saturday as he warned that the country was facing “thousands” of deaths and should prepare for that outcome. The Swedish government took steps to introduce new powers on Monday, allowing authorities to close airports, railway stations, shops and businesses without prior parliamentary approval.

The country’s relatively laid-back approach has drawn criticism, notably from a group of scientists who penned a letter to the newspaper Dagens Nyheter. They asked the country’s public health agency why Sweden has resisted a lockdown, when the rest of Europe, including the U.K., have implemented tougher measures.

“Different countries have different conditions, but we struggle to see why the Swedish context is so different from the British,” they wrote.

Finland tightened its border with Sweden
and neighboring Norway on Tuesday with only necessary travel now permitted. The Finnish government also urged Sweden to better protect and test its health-care workers, who are helping treat some Finnish patients.

Return to normal life

In contrast to Sweden, neighbor Denmark is planning to lift lockdown measures at a gradual pace. Schools will reopen to some children as soon as April 15 if coronavirus cases and deaths remain stable, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Monday.

That Scandinavian country was an early instigator of tough COVID-19 measures — second only to Italy in imposing a lockdown. Schools, restaurants, bars and cafés have been closed since the middle of March. The rules have not been as strict as in the U.K., where, after early consideration of a pursuit of herd immunity allowing for only minimal restrictions on activity, people are only allowed to leave the house once a day for exercise or shopping, but the number of hospitalizations fell last week in Denmark, and daily deaths have stabilized.

The reopening of day-care centers and schools in is designed to get the Danish economy moving again, with many parents currently at home with children. Frederiksen, whose approval rating has surged through the crisis, said the decision on whether to move toward normality was a “political choice.”

Austria will also ease some of its measures later this month, with small shops reopening from April 14 and all shops opening again from May 1. A number of Asian countries have lifted lockdown measures, but Denmark and Austria will be the first European countries to do so.

The path of the virus in those countries will be crucial to discovering the extent of the coronavirus damage to the global economy.

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